Tripura plans to export surplus power to Nepal, said Minister Ratan Lal Nath. After success with Bangladesh, the state eyes wider regional trade, investing ₹935 crore to boost efficiency and develop major new renewable and gas-based power projects.
Tripura, one of the few electricity-surplus states in the Northeast, is exploring the possibility of exporting power to Nepal, Power and Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Friday.
The minister revealed the plan after inaugurating a 132 KV Gokulnagar electricity sub-station under the North Eastern Region (NER) Power System Improvement Project at Gokulnagar Rastarmatha Sports Ground in Sepahijala district.
“A meeting was held in New Delhi today regarding the export of power to Nepal, and the Central government will take the final call,” Nath told reporters after the event.
Although Tripura does not share a border with Nepal, the Himalayan nation shares a 1,751 km frontier with five Indian states — Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Tripura, which borders Bangladesh along 856 km, already supplies over 100 MW of power to the neighbouring country. The state began exporting 100 MW from the ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) plant at Palatana in Gomati district in March 2016.
“The supply often rises to 160 MW,” an official of the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) said. “Since the first agreement in 2016, we have renewed it twice to continue the supply.”
He added that the Bangladesh government has recently requested Tripura to increase the supply to 250 MW to meet its growing power demand. “A final decision on the proposal is still pending,” the official said.
Nath noted that the state is adopting new technologies to boost generation efficiency amid a decline in natural gas availability. “With World Bank support, Rs 935 crore is being invested to double power generation using the same amount of gas through combined cycle gas turbine technology at Rokhia in Sepahijala district,” he said.
He also announced that an 800 MW pumped storage power project will come up at Chawmanu in Dhalai district, with the Detailed Project Report (DPR) under preparation.
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“To ensure uninterrupted supply to Bangladesh, a 400 KV sub-station will also be established at Suryamani Nagar near Agartala,” the minister added.
The state government, he said, is now pushing to make all government offices energy self-sufficient by installing rooftop solar power plants to meet their electricity needs.
